Bonds lawyer plans suit over book

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San Francisco Giants’ left fielder Barry Bonds sits and rests on the grass during a pitching change in the fifth inning of their spring training night game against the Los Angeles Angels in Scottsdale, Ariz., Wednesday March 22, 2006.(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

SAN FRANCISCO — Barry Bonds plans to sue the authors and publisher of a book that alleges the San Francisco Giants’ slugger used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, saying they used “illegally obtained” grand jury transcripts.

Bonds’ attorneys sent a letter Thursday to an agent for the authors of “Game of Shadows,” alerting them of plans to sue the writers, publisher Gotham Books, the San Francisco Chronicle and Sports Illustrated, which published excerpts this month.

The letter, signed by Alison Berry Wilkinson, an associate of Bonds’ lead attorney, Michael Rains, was posted on the Chronicle’s Web site. A hearing was tentatively scheduled for today in San Francisco Superior Court.

“The reason we filed the lawsuit in the simplest terms possible is to prevent the authors from promoting themselves and profiting from illegal conduct,” Rains told The Associated Press on Thursday.

He said laws prohibit people from possessing grand jury materials unless they are unsealed, and said authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, both also reporters for the Chronicle, “have made a complete farce of the criminal justice system.”

The book, released Thursday, claims Bonds used steroids, human growth hormone, insulin and other banned substances for at least five seasons beginning in 1998.

“We certainly stand by our reporters and the reporting they did for us,” Chronicle executive vice president and editor Phil Bronstein said.

Bonds’ legal team will ask a judge to issue a temporary restraining order forfeiting all profits from publication and distribution, according to the letter. The lawyers plan to file the suit under California’s unfair competition law.

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